Looking for a Rental Apartment – Part Two:
Safety, Availability and Cost
After following our advice on choosing a rental location radius that suits your needs, the following aspects should be taken into consideration:
1. Safety
– It is important to take the time and look into the level of safety that an area offers. Before choosing a rental location, consider your living situation and the level of safety you feel is required to live comfortably. For instance, if you have children, you may feel more comfortable living in a family oriented community versus living in a student occupied area.
– Put some time into researching the areas you are considering and rate each one on a scale of 1 – 10. Consider a community that has a neighbourhood watch, or safety program in place, or near by police institutions. An example of a safety program is called the Crime Free Multi Housing Program. This program is prevalent in the Ottawa area and CLV Group has many locations that match this status. For more information on this program you can visit http://www.crime-free-association.org/index.html
2. Availability
– Once you have a general area in mind, look into whether or not there are apartments for rent available. Some areas may be largely residential, but might only have single homes. Other areas may have more options such as low-level apartments, high-rise apartments, duplexes, town homes, or other renting options. Though you may be set on a location, if there are no rental options available there then you’ll have to start looking at different areas.
-Rate each area from 1-10
3. Cost
– Research the areas you’ve chosen and find out the general price range for the kind of unit you are looking for
-Rate each location from 1-10
Hopefully, once you’ve followed these steps, it will become more clear as to where you should rent an apartment. The ideal rental location would be a location within one of the radius you’ve selected, which has a high average area code (combining safety, availability, and cost ratings). At this point, you will also have to consider which factors are more important to you. By having mapped out and rated each area, the decision process should be far easier.
